How We Make Money
SOC2Scout earns revenue from three sources:
- Featured listings — Auditor firms can pay for enhanced profile visibility. Paid tiers include Featured ($99/month) and Premium ($399/month).
- Affiliate partnerships — We participate in affiliate programs for GRC platforms (Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, and others). If you click an affiliate link and purchase a subscription, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Affiliate links are marked as such.
- Pay-per-lead — Premium-tier auditor firms receive lead notifications when buyers complete our matchmaker form. Firms pay a fee per qualified lead delivered.
What Featured Listings Mean
Featured listings are marked with a FEATURED badge in the directory. Featured firms benefit from:
- Enhanced profile display (additional information fields visible)
- Priority placement in default directory views (above non-featured firms with similar scores)
- Lead notifications when buyers complete the matchmaker form
- A “Featured Firm” badge on their profile page
What featured listings do NOT affect: Featured status cannot override our matchmaker algorithm's fit scoring. A featured firm with a poor match to your stated requirements will not appear in your top 3 matches. Featured status adds a maximum 2-point tiebreaker — it cannot move a poorly-matched firm ahead of better matches.
Affiliate Links
When we link to GRC platforms (Vanta, Drata, Secureframe, etc.) from editorial content or tools, those links may be affiliate links. We will always disclose when a link is affiliate. We only recommend products we believe are genuinely useful for companies pursuing SOC2.
Our GRC platform recommendations and comparisons are based on product capabilities, market position, and user feedback — not on which program pays the highest affiliate commission.
Editorial Independence
Commercial relationships do not influence our editorial content. Firm reviews are published or withheld based solely on verification criteria — not on whether a firm is a paying advertiser. We do not remove or suppress negative verified reviews for any reason.
Editorial guides (What is SOC2, cost guides, red flags, etc.) are written based on factual accuracy and buyer utility, not to promote specific commercial partners.
Contact
Questions about our commercial relationships or disclosure practices: [email protected]